Citi lets customers in the Philippines make text message credit card purchases

Citi Mobile is allowing users to authorize credit card transactions by texting or calling merchants rather than the traditional approach of swiping their credit cards. Already, the bank has deals with retailers, as well as restaurants such as McDonald's, to allow users to remotely pay for their goods and have them delivered. Other services, such as the purchase of Internet access time and paying of utility bills via their handsets, are also possible.

The heavy use of SMS in the Philippines makes them an ideal candidate for a text messaging-based service. Unlike the United States, text messaging costs just under $0.02 per message, and is much cheaper than prepaid voice minutes. In fact, the average usage of text messages is now 12-15 SMS per day, according to Citi. Mobile commerce might actually be upon us at long last.

For more on Citi's plan for text messaging-based payments:
- check out the Finextra article